Surprise!
by Hairstreaked
Summary: Touchstone is lonely since his Queen Sabriel has been away from him for longer than expected. But when she finally returns, the day of his birthday, she gives him the best gift he could ever ask for (WARNING: it's sex!).


Despite all the preparations for the upcoming festivities, King Touchstone did not feel very festive. Whilst all around him the castle in Belisaere bustled with activity in preparation for his birthday celebration, he was depressed. He knew that the event was supposedly meant to be a surprise for him, to cheer him up since his Queen had been away from him for the last month, but he still knew what was going on.

His steward was also in on the surprise, and meant to lead Touchstone on by convincing him to stay in his chambers and overview some reports on how the Old Kingdom had recuperated quickly after Kerrigor had wrecked his havoc. This healing had begun immediately after the foe was vanquished, and now, a few short months later, the citizens of the Old Kingdom had managed to re-establish their lives and the economy of the land. Which was an amazing thing in itself, which Touchstone would be feeling quite proud of if he was in the presence of the one woman who had made it all possible.

"Sabriel..." Touchstone sighed forlornly as he dropped his forehead down to smack on the reports on the desk in front of him. When she'd left she assured him that she'd be back within two weeks, but now that time apart had doubled, and Touchstone wondered if he'd ever see her again.

He knew where she was, and knew she was safe. With the destruction of Kerrigor came great relief to the Kingdom, and further comfort now that the people had finally found their King. Touchstone had returned to Belisaere with the Abhorsen, and proclaimed to the population that the peace had finally been restored. Great cheers and praise to King Touchstone were exalted by the citizens to him and the Necromancer who'd freed them. The next thing His Highness had to do was marry that Abhorsen, making her his Queen. The ceremony was not a huge extravaganza, as the Kingdom had yet to recover from Kerrigor. No, the wedding was a modest affair, and following a brief honeymoon, the royal couple parted on their missions of re-establishing the Old Kingdom. Touchstone remained in the northern part of the Kingdom, visiting towns and communities to help them rebuild, while Sabriel went to the far south, to the Wall, to remake the Charter Symbols that protected it but were wearing out as they had been made by her father, the previous Abhorsen, who had died. Sabriel had kissed Touchstone goodbye and promised to return as soon as possible, predicting that the least of the work, the oldest Charter glyphs that had to be replaced right away, would encompass about two weeks' time, and then she'd return to help him with his work before going back to restoring the Wall a few months later. And though she and Touchstone had remained in contact with one another through letters, those letters still didn't seem to be enough for him once the time she'd predicted she'd be away for had run out. And besides that, on this day that the festivities were being planned for him, a month after she'd left for the Wall, he did not receive a letter.

Of course Touchstone worried, despite the fact that it was only one letter out of thirty. Reason told him that she was just too busy at the Wall on this day to send him a message. But loneliness ate at him, demanding to know why she wouldn't write him on this day of all days: his birthday.

He raised his head off his desk, blinking away a threat of sad tears. He glanced towards the open door of his chamber, seeing that the usual two guards were standing on either side of the doorframe just outside. Guards would always be accompanying him now, now that he was King, unless he ordered them away. But this day he knew that his steward had ordered the guards upon Touchstone at all times, so that he would not leave and discover the 'surprise' that was being planned for him. But Touchstone knew all about the party plans anyway; he could hear the population of Belsiaere rumbling with excitement just outside the window.

Touchstone pushed his chair back from the desk and stood up, walking to the window. Looking out he had a clear view from this chamber of his of the castle compound's entrance, huge doors that were wide open on this day. Pouring through the doors down the stone-paved road were people with carts, carts appearing to be heavily-laden with goods though they were all covered on top by canvas tarps. Watching, Touchstone noticed that one tarp on one cart was not secure, and could see the banquet of rich food being carried on it.

Touchstone sighed. This city was naive to think that they could hide from their King something he just simply did not feel in the mood to attend, but he was glad that his people were finally happy and busy with rejuvenating their kingdom and their King. He decided that when the time came, he'd just have to go to the party the castle was so eager to surprise him with, and just pretend that he was having a good time without his Queen. If he had a choice, he would prefer to stay in his chambers and continue doing work, as he suspected that that was what Sabriel was doing, and he didn't think it was right to be recreational on his own while the Abhorsen was spending long hours at work for the benefit of their kingdom. But Touchstone's conscience told him he had to go to the birthday party, to show how grateful he was that the citizens were grateful of him.

Turning away from the window, Touchstone wandered back to the desk, plopped himself down in the chair, and resumed his review of the reports, waiting for someone to fetch him for his 'surprise.'

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"King Touchstone, wake up," someone was shaking him gently, their grasp on his arm.

"...w-what? Oh, pardon me," Touchstone apologized for his ignorance. Then he realized that he'd fallen asleep when he was supposed to have been reviewing the Old Kingdom's progression reports. "Forgive me, I must have just dozed off..."

"No, no, Your Highness," it was the steward that had come to retrieve him. "If it please you, Your Majesty, there is something in the Great Hall downstairs that you should come right away to see."

So the 'surprise' was finally ready. Touchstone's eye roved to the window, seeing a sky streaked in purple as dusk was finally settling over Belsiaere. No sounds of bustle of people outside in excitement came through the window. In fact, the whole castle seemed unnaturally silent. "Yes, I'll come," Touchstone agreed.

"First, I believe it to be best if Your Highness would dress up to visit the Great Hall," the steward suggested, noticing that Touchstone was wearing too simple garments of trousers and tunic that would appoint him as a mere citizen and not as the King of the Old Kingdom.

"Yes, that sounds agreeable, for whatever it is that's waiting for me down in the Great Hall," Touchstone muttered as he stood up and stretched.

The steward smiled appreciatively. "I have laid out some suitable clothes on the bed for His Majesty to wear," he continued, sweeping an arm out to point in the direction of the bed on the other side of the room.

"Yes, thank you," Touchstone glanced, seeing royal attire, though not too formal, spread out on the bed. Thankfully, the steward had remembered that Touchstone did not normally prefer to go around in full Kingly dress, and what was more, realized that his King would probably prefer to attend his 'surprise' in comfort, so chose clothes that would allow him movement throughout the no doubt festive night.

"King Touchstone, I must ask your leave now, but please, attend the Great Hall as soon as you have dressed," the steward bowed.

"Yes, I will, thank you, you are dismissed," Touchstone rushed. But as soon as he finished speaking, the steward himself rushed out, pausing only to talk to the guards outside the door. Finally walking away down the corridor, the steward had the guards following him, leaving Touchstone completely alone in his chambers.

He breathed in deep, and then exhaled slowly. So now the party was complete in its preparations, and just waiting for the birthday boy to get dressed and go to it, to be 'surprised' and be happy that his people would go to such lengths to celebrate him.

"Might as well just get it over with," Touchstone sighed as he sauntered over to the bed. He grasped the soft shirt in his hands, picking it up and smelling it, smelling an aroma that reminded him of his Queen. Oh, how he missed her.

Touchstone closed his eyes and remembered. Remembered to before Sabriel left him to go restore the Wall a whole month ago. Remembered a night in this chamber soon after they'd finally wed. Remembered speaking with the Abhorsen and promising her his heart and his soul. And promising that he'd love her forever. And then expressing that love physically for the duration of many passionate hours. They'd both been chaste up to that point, and with the adoration they had for one another they made love again and again and again, as they had wanted to do and knew they were meant to do with only each other.

Touchstone missed Sabriel dearly, body and soul. He wished that she had returned after those two weeks she'd predicted, because all that time his bed and his heart had been empty and he wanted to show her how much he'd missed her by making love to her again. But those two weeks had stretched out to be this whole month, and he was straining with sadness that he couldn't have her with him, to tell her with words how much he loved her. He missed talking to her. He missed telling her face-to-face how much he loved her. He missed loving her physically, and her returning that love with her presence in his bed.

He sighed again, opening his eyes and shaking away the images of them making love that had crowded in his mind as he'd stood there reminiscing. He remembered that, at this moment, he was alone in his chambers, while the entire staff of the castle and hired entertainment were crowded in the Great Hall and waiting to 'surprise' their King. Touchstone also painfully remembered that Sabriel was, at this moment, far away from him, and would not be there to joyously celebrate with him the day of his birth.

Another deep sigh passed through his lips. "They're waiting for me..." and he began pulling off his simple clothes to replace them with the royal attire the steward had laid out.

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"This is it," Touchstone spoke quietly to himself as he took the stance of a dueling cowboy, facing off against the huge doors to the Great Hall at the other end of the corridor.

He was dressed in the clothes the steward had laid out for him in his chambers, and had made his way from his room to this end of the hallway alone, not hearing any other noise throughout the entire castle but his own footsteps as he walked. One hand grasped a mediocre crown, and he now lazily set it atop his head of chestnut curls. He stood alone at the mouth of the wide corridor, staring down the doors to the Great Hall, challenging them to open of their own accord and demand that he join the party.

This hallway was lined with tall overbearing statues of Belsiaere king's soldiers, limbs and faces rigid beneath carved stone armor. They weren't about to speak up to tell the King that his people were waiting for him. And Touchstone merely looked at them, from face to face to face, refusing to answer their one question: where is your Queen?

Touchstone sighed and began trudging down the corridor towards the doors. Halfway there he raised one arm up, to push the door as soon as he reached it. Had he not been so sensible he would not have any inkling as to what was awaiting him in the Great Hall, as no sound of the celebration just waiting to burst forth from within reached his ears. Again, the only sounds he heard were those of his own footsteps.

But then he heard a breath catch, just as he was a step away from pushing the doors wide open. And suddenly someone was upon him, arms gripping his shoulders, pushing him to spin around, then push him harshly up against the wall of the corridor between two of the massive soldier statues.

"Hey! Wha-" just as Touchstone's back hit the wall, there were pressed upon his lips a second pair of lips. And the hands slid from on his shoulders around to encircle his neck. And for a minute he was lost in the moment, as it was pleasant with the taste of the lips and the touch of that someone's body pressed against his. A very feminine body. As the lips nipped at the corners of his mouth, Touchstone sighed and fell into the moment. With the sigh his lips had parted, and immediately the invader took advantage of that situation, sweeping their tongue in one swift move into the interior of his mouth, and the tip of their tongue reached beneath his to massage the visible nerves that ran along its underside. Another sigh escaped the King as he allowed himself to enjoy the simple action, before his mind made him realize something.

'Waitaminute!' Touchstone's mind raced. 'I'm the King! Nobody does this to the King without asking!' he thought to himself, though it was more about his embarrassment about being overpowered when he had the status he had and not about the act itself. Because the act itself was quite enjoyable. Then he remembered something else. 'Especially when the King has a Queen!' and he violently pushed the person away, threads of slick passion from their mouths stretching as far as they could--they didn't want the passion to stop--before they snapped to separate something that had felt so right.

Sputtering, Touchstone wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his jacket, streaks of wet love from the other person against his mouth left along the cuff of the arm, thinking that whoever it was who'd tricked him was going to pay. Ire building, he began to scold the person, "Who do you think you ar-" but stopped when he realized who it was.

Touchstone's eyes starting at the ground, he saw bare feet in sandals and slender bare legs peeking out from beneath the uniform burgundy gown of a castle servant girl. He let his gaze rove up, seeing more standard clothing of the castle servants: a creme-coloured apron and the black corset-style bodice. But Touchstone's stopped to leer at what peered over the top of the bodice at him: deep cleavage of a quite healthy young woman. And the skin across that beautiful expanse was a gentle milk-white, but it began to flush pink under his stare. The woman's arms were slipped into the loose sleeves of the dress, and attached up to a graceful neck that flowed further up to a head that supported a very familiar head of raven-dark hair hidden partially by a kerchief. And the woman's face was gorgeous with piercing eyes and tempting lips: things that Touchstone had missed for a very long time.

"Sabriel!" the King gasped as he pulled her back into his arms again, embracing her tightly as though she would suddenly disappear on him. And he wasn't going to let that happen.

"Touchstone," the Abhorsen breathed softly against his ear as her head found a comfortable niche against his neck and shoulder in the embrace.

The royal couple stood like that for long moments, hugging each other with arms and hands clasped tightly about one another, standing just in front of the doors to the Great Hall, forgetting all about the people who awaited their King just on the other side.

Finally Touchstone pulled away, and a flurry of questions spilled out of the orifice that had been, moments before, sealed onto his Queen. "Sabriel, whenever did you return? Why didn't you come to me as soon as you did?"

"Whoa, whoa, Touchstone," Sabriel calmed him, her hand still on the back of his neck and rubbing the soft skin there. She'd missed doing that: it was always so soothing for the both of them. "Are you glad to see me?"

"Are you kidding!? I missed you so much!" this time he swept her into a kiss, one that was passionate and burning with all the love he'd been unable to express to her in the past month.

Sabriel sighed into the kiss, cooling Touchstone down as he realized that yes, he wasn't dreaming, and no, Sabriel wasn't about to just say hello and then immediately leave him again. The kiss slowed from passionate pressing and urgent lips, to soft touches and relieved pecks.

It was Sabriel who pulled away, but Touchstone was reluctant to let her and followed her movement, ensuring his lips still touched hers. But then he had to let go, though he continuously gazed into her eyes.

"The Wall is recovering nicely," Sabriel answered to the question the King hadn't asked. "I was able to replace all of the symbols that were the oldest my father had made, as they were the ones that would have expired first. Though there are still many Charter marks left to reinstate, they were made later in the previous Abhorsen's life, so they still have strong life left," Sabriel paused as she remembered her father, smiling fondly at the memories. "I will have to return to the Wall to replace those marks, but I won't have to go back for a few months yet. I thought it best to leave to return here and help you out with other matters of rebuilding the Old Kingdom, my King." Sabriel smiled up at Touchstone.

"...you're so beautiful..." Touchstone drawled before catching himself, "...I-I mean, that's good work, Abhorsen."

Sabriel giggled. "Does the King sincerely need my help with the other matters of the Old Kingdom?" Sabriel raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Upon arriving in Belsiaere it looked to me like His Majesty has done quite well in rebuilding his kingdom."

"_Our_ kingdom," Touchstone corrected her. "While you were gone I toured the country to aid the cities and towns and various communities in their efforts to recuperate, so yes, the Old Kingdom is recovering well. But there are still many matters that require both the King and Queen to work together to take care of."

"Sounds reasonable," the Abhorsen nodded in agreement. "So I guess I'll be around here for a while. Hope you don't mind..." she smirked at him, expecting an enthused response.

She got enthusiasm all right, as the King suddenly kissed her passionately again.

"...so when did you return?" Touchstone repeated his earlier question when his mouth left her lips, and had pecked her on the cheek before asking. "And why are you dressed like that?"

Sabriel giggled. "I arrived early this morning. I had been planning last week to come back later today, but since all my work at the Wall has been finished for the time being, and I really wanted to see you again, I figured I'd leave the finishing magic touches with the Border Guards who were mages, and start heading back here. I didn't write a letter for you to get today, because I wanted to surprise you with myself! And as soon as I got here, I'd bathed and just wanted to relax, but I didn't want to have to wear anything of my stiff royal attire wardrobe, so I just threw this on. It's very comfortable." she smiled and hugged him more tightly.

"I missed you so much," Touchstone sighed in relief.

"I missed you too. I love you," Sabriel rubbed her husband's back. "Happy birthday."

"Thanks..." Touchstone sighed as he remembered why he had been heading down this corridor in the first place: to be 'surprised' by the party waiting for him on the other side of the Great Hall's doors nearby. "I love you too."

"The castle's been awfully quiet," Sabriel pondered.

"I know," Touchstone rolled his eyes. "The castle staff has planned a 'surprise' birthday party for me."

Sabriel started. "If it's a surprise, then how can you know about it?"

"I could see the people outside my chambers' windows bustling about with the preparations. Furthermore, my steward ensured I was 'distracted' this whole day and had guards keep watch that I didn't leave my chambers and see them getting the party ready."

"Well, are you going to go to it?" Sabriel pointed to the Great Hall's doors. She'd obviously seen the preparations when she'd returned to the castle that morning, so knew where the castle workers were waiting for their King.

Touchstone shrugged. "I hadn't wanted to go if you weren't by my side, Sabriel, but I'd have to go anyway, and show my gratitude to the staff for their efforts."

"Is that what you want to do?" Sabriel asked seriously.

Touchstone sighed. "It's what I should do."

"Are you sure?" the Abhorsen looked suspiciously at him.

Touchstone stopped, and looked suspiciously back at her. "What are you saying?"

Then Sabriel kissed him again, and pushed completely away from him, grasping the crown off his head with one hand as she did so. Then she turned her back to him and started to walk away, down the corridor and away from the Great Hall.

"Sabriel! What are you saying!?" Touchstone demanded.

She turned back around to face him, stopping in her tracks. She had a broad grin from ear to ear on her face, and the look in her eyes made Touchstone blush. "I'm saying that you have a choice to make, Your Highness."

"Which is...?" Touchstone crossed his arms.

Sabriel giggled. "King Touchstone, today is your birthday. And on this day, above all others, your desires are the obligation of others. Despite the fact that you are the King and could have anything you wanted, on this day you are even more entitled to having your wishes granted."

"...go on," Touchstone knew Sabriel was getting at something, but didn't know what.

The Abhorsen giggled again. "Your Majesty, I am one of those others. Thus I have an obligation. I am obliged to give you two choices. One is the choice to have me accompany you into that Great Hall and into that 'surprise' party awaiting you. We'll spend the whole night celebrating the day you were born with the entire castle staff, so we won't be alone together."

"...and the other?" Touchstone felt himself start to smile, but didn't know why.

Sabriel smiled so her glistening teeth showed; was there a little mischievousness to her smirk? "...the other is the choice to accompany your Queen back to her chambers, so that she may give you her own 'personal' birthday gift to you. We'll spend the whole night celebrating the day you were born with each other, and we will be alone together."

Touchstone blanched, knowing quite well what she was meaning they could do. "That is not a very balanced choice, Abhorsen."

Sabriel raised up her arms, one palm up and level with the other that still held his crown, like a scale. She tipped them up and down in opposite directions to one other. "...hmm, I don't know, King Touchstone. The one choice would have you following your conscience, and having you attend a party so that you could be grateful for all the preparation that went into it. The other choice would have you following your libido, and having you attend a bedroom so that you could be loved and express love for the person who offered it to you."

"Yes, there's definitely a bias here..." Touchstone muttered, looking at his fingers as though counting the pros and cons of each choice.

Sabriel giggled one last time before spinning on her heel and continuing her walk away. "Is that bias a good thing, or a bad thing?" she laughed over her shoulder in his direction, swinging the arm whose hand had a grip on Touchstone's crown.

For a long minute Touchstone stood there, watching as the Abhorsen reached the end of the corridor, then turned the corner, disappearing from his view. '...party with the public, or party with my wife...I've seen the public all the time this past month, and I haven't seen Sabriel at all during that time...' the King thought to himself. The decision he had to make had an obvious solution.

"...h-hey! Sabriel! Wait for me!" and Touchstone ran down the hall, away from the doors to the Great Hall and after his Queen.

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Reaching the Queen's chambers, the King of the Old Kingdom found the door to be slightly ajar. While chasing after his wife he had only been able to know where she was going as her form ran far ahead of him through the castle. He wondered how she was able to run the entire time, as when he finally reached her destination he was out of breath. Nevertheless, whatever game she was playing had gotten him wound up physically, and he excitedly assumed what 'present' she had for him. And those assumptions were starting to arouse him. He chuckled that his body was reacting to his mind in just the manner the stereotypical teen boy's would. Eager, he knocked loudly on the door.

"Come in," the Abhorsen's voice wavered through the crack of the door.

Pushing the door open, Touchstone noticed a slight mist escape the room. It was steam. The door open all the way, Touchstone surveyed the room, searching for the steam's source.

The Queen's chamber of the castle was furnished exactly like the King's, except that the room was slightly smaller. And though these were separate bedrooms for each member of the royal couple, they had, in the short time they were married, only slept together in Touchstone's room. Working on their separate careers, they used their own chambers as their own offices. They didn't think it practical to sleep apart...

The furniture in the room consisted of bookcases and a desk and chair at one end, a huge bed against the wall opposite the door, and a fireplace at the other end of the room. But that is where the similarities between the two chambers stopped, for standing between Touchstone's gaze and the mouth of the fireplace was a tall paper-and-wood folding screen, from behind which the steam was emerging. The King's mediocre crown hung on one corner of the screen's thin wooden frame.

"Abhorsen?" Touchstone played, stepping into the room while one arm reached behind him to ensure that the door shut tightly.

A light suddenly brightened on the other side of the screen. It was the fire in the fireplace, crackling happily that it had come to life. And it's maker's silhouette was cast against the paper of the screen for Touchstone to see.

"Right over here, my King," Sabriel's voice sang. The silhouette, a very feminine form, stretched its arms up, and Sabriel's hands peeked up over the top of the tall screen. "I'm getting part of your present ready," the hands disappeared as the arms were lowered, and silhouette hands appeared against the paper and began removing the silhouette clothes. First the apron, which was then slung over the top of the screen. Then the arms folded into the torso of the shadowform, and Touchstone's ears pricked up to listen to the sounds of laces being loosened. Then the gown itself, pushed down the body of the silhouette, legs raising one at a time to step out of it. A hand reached down and grasped the dress, then threw it off to the side, making it fly towards the bed. It landed on the floor near the bed, but Touchstone didn't care. His eyes were still on the shadowform against the paper of the screen, as he could see every curve of the body of it, and was enjoying the sight.

Then the Queen's face peered around the edge of the screen, smiling as she gazed at her King. "Well?"

Touchstone stood still, blushing, as his eyes were staring at the breast pressed against the paper of the screen, and the nub at its centre that was threatening to poke a hole through the paper. "Well..."

Sabriel giggled. She then pulled the kerchief off of her head, freeing her hair, and threw it at Touchstone. Clumsily, he reached to grab it, his eyes still on his wife.

"Come join me, Touchstone," Sabriel beckoned a finger at him once he'd regained his composure. Then she disappeared back behind the screen, and the silhouette crouched and stepped into something, settling back in a sitting position.

Confused at the shadowform's movements, Touchstone crossed the room and looked around the screen. Sabriel was smiling warmly up at him from her seat in a hot, steamy, inviting-looking bath. Touchstone shut his eyes as the smell of lavender wafted up from the clear water, but opened them again when his Queen giggled.

"Are you just going to stand there and stare, Your Majesty, or are you going to join me?" Sabriel crossed her arms to cover her chest and raised her knees up to draw her legs against her body, making room in the copper bathtub for her King.

Touchstone figured that Sabriel had bathed when she had returned to the castle earlier this morning, and he himself had showered when he had woke up that morning as well. He deduced that this bath now was merely a ploy for foreplay, and he liked it.

"Just one moment, Your Highness," Touchstone smiled sideways at the Abhorsen before returning to the other side of the screen. He decided to tease his Queen, and heard her giggle when he began to strip off the clothing that his steward had purposefully picked out for him to wear to the 'surprise' party. Once completely bare, he decided to tease Sabriel further, and grabbed the apron she had slung over the top of the screen to hide his semi-hardened state.

Strolling back around the screen, Touchstone ignored Sabriel laughing at him in the apron, and immediately stepped into the bath. He sank down, but before the hem of the apron could touch water, he whipped it off and dipped his body down into the bath before the Abhorsen could see his trying erection.

Sabriel unbent her legs, sliding them back down as Touchstone settled in and relaxed against his end of the tub. But she kept her feet sliding down the centre of the tub floor, and her toes eventually touched something that made Touchstone jump.

"Easy!" Touchstone exclaimed when something prodded between his legs. "This tub isn't big enough for the both of us to stretch out, you know!"

Sabriel smiled, spreading her legs open to him. "So let's be efficient and cuddle up then, yes?" she held her arms out to him.

Touchstone smirked. Without a word, he banged against the sides of the tub as he got his knees on its floor, then crawled forward to kneel between his Queen's legs. The only other sound besides his banging around the tub was that of the water, softly splashing as his limbs cut across its surface, and making mild plopping noises as it dripped down his arms to make ripples in the lavender smelling liquid heat. She wrapped her arms around his neck to embrace him to her, forcing him to press his chest against hers when he leaned in to kiss her neck.

Sabriel sighed as her King's lips suckled on the soft skin below her ear. "Oh, Touchstone, how I've missed you." Her hands slid down his back and disappeared below the surface of the water when she grasped his hips.

"Sabriel..." Touchstone trailed off, breath becoming ragged, as his focus trailed from her neck to reside on her chest. When his mouth touched her nipple, Sabriel gasped and arched her back, her long hair sweeping back and whipping against the back of the tub when her head dropped back. Encouraged, Touchstone let his tongue dart out, like a wild animal emerging from its cave to go out and hunt, and twirled it in spirals upon the soft skin of her breast, dancing around the obvious: her nipple. Then he just gave in, and laved the flat of his tongue from the bottom of her areola and up. The nub retreated from his tastebuds as he moved up, so he repeated the motion to try and catch it off guard. And then one more time he did it, while all the way Sabriel writhed beneath him.

This bath was not meant for cleaning, as everything the King and Queen were doing in it was morally dirty. But the smell of lavender would adhere to every part of their bodies, as was incidental as they moved and pressed and squeezed and caressed each other all over.

Finally the outsides of their bodies were not enough for this foreplay, and Touchstone moved his fingers beneath the water against the folds between his wife's legs.

"Ah!" the Abhorsen gasped as her body reacted, and bucked against Touchstone's hand. The water in the tub splashed with her sudden movement, and flew over the edge of the tub to hit the fire in the fireplace. The fire merely crackled in retort, and continued to burn, while Touchstone also burned within--burning with the need to please Sabriel with all the pleasures he had wished for her while she had been away from him. So he thrust a finger inside her.

"Touchstone!" Sabriel cried out when his thumb met her bud.

"You're so lovely, my beloved," Touchstone whispered softly before pulling Sabriel's earlobe between his lips to suck upon, one of his hands gripping the edge of the tub behind her back while the other hand was ministering her beneath the water. His thumb gently stroked her bud in a sweet circular motion, and she moaned each time he came around it full circle. He started moving his finger slowly within her, gently bending at the knuckle so that his fingertip stroked a certain sensitive spot on her inner wall. But when her breath hitched, and moaned a whimper that said it wasn't enough, he chuckled lightly and pulled the finger gradually out, before plunging it back in all the way to where it joined the rest of his hand. With Sabriel's sigh of insistence, he then he pulled out again, and pushed in again. Out again, in again. Out, in.

Sabriel smiled against her husband's neck as she panted. "Touchstone...yo-you're going to...oh, Charter! That's too much!" her fingernails in his hips bit down into his flesh as a small wave of pleasure rushed through her, rocking her body. More bathwater flew over the edge of the tub as she humped against his hand. "Do it again..."

Touchstone chuckled. "As Her Majesty wishes," and plunged a second finger deep inside her. Her soft folds enveloped him all the way to his knuckle, and though the bathwater couldn't follow his fingers inside of her, her body was making its own slickness to help him move more easily within her with. And then he thrust both fingers together out of her body, then back into her welcoming passage. Escape, invade, repeat.

"Ooh, Touchstone, how I've missed you," Sabriel repeated her earlier words, this time meaning how she'd missed the way he made love to her. "I love you so much," she turned her head to face him, forcing him to leave her neck, and kissed him passionately on the lips. She sucked his lower lip between into her mouth and gently suckled, drawing from him a low moan.

"I love you, Abhorsen," Touchstone returned, just before Sabriel shrieked as she came, her body raising up out of the water with the tension. The white passion had blinded her vision with its intensity, and she had squeezed her eyes shut against its onslaught, forcing it to flood from that sense to drown the others. Her skin tingled pink all over her body as the great wave of pleasure followed by a feeling of release and relaxation took hold of every nerve of her body, whipping them straight and making her whole form vibrate. Touchstone smiled at the response of her body, as her body was pressed to his and the shivers of her climax seeped through his skin. As the sensation she'd been missing for a whole month faded, she gradually came back down, moaning at the great feeling the climax had washed through her limbs, and settled back down into the tub. More lavender water reached the floor around the tub.

Touchstone purposefully kissed her again, first the soft lips were merely touching hers, then they opened and tried to pry hers open as well. Submitting, Sabriel parted her lips, and Touchstone's tongue immediately slipped through and began massaging hers inside her mouth. Finally he pulled away, and stood up in the tub. Sabriel's eyes lazily roved up his legs, watching the lavender water drip down. Then her sight rested on his...'excitement', and she smiled at the reaction she'd caused in him, on him, to him.

Touchstone turned away from her, planning to step out of the tub, but then Sabriel had caught a hold of him with her hand. He reeled back around to face the Abhorsen, having to look down, and found her smiling as she looked back up at him, her face close to the part of him her fingers had wrapped around.

Drips of sweat that had beaded along the top of the King's forehead dropped with the sudden motion of his head when he turned to look down at Sabriel. One sweat drop landed on the Abhorsen's knuckle of the hand holding him, and before he could ask her what she was doing, her tongue slipped out from between her lips. Then she moved her head, eyes looking down now at her hand on him, and made her tongue lap up the sweat drop from her knuckle. Touchstone groaned at the implications of the sight and the proximity of her lips and the sensation of her finger squeezing tightly about him when she licked it.

"What is my responsibility now, Touchstone?" Sabriel gazed back up at her husband, lips curling in a sinful grin. Just as the King opened his mouth to answer, the Queen moved her smile to press against the base of his rigid flesh.

"Ah!" Touchstone gasped, throwing his head back and squeezing his eyes shut as his eyebrows furrowed in concentration of the feeling and not the sight. For now the Abhorsen, with her lips still touching his body, had slid her mouth in its smiling shape up the shaft of his hardened cock, and came to rest right upon his tip.

His Majesty couldn't help himself, and wept a tear of his sex juice from out the slim slit of his arousal. He lolled his head back around so he could see what Sabriel would do about it, and just as his vision caught sight of her, he also saw and felt every single tastebud on her tongue as it lapped up that pearl of his elixir from the head. It was a delicate touch, but it sent a wicked shiver up Touchstone's spine and shocked his neck, forcing him to whip his head back once more as his mouth opened wide to issue forth a great groan of pleasure that shook the chambers' stone walls. His arms flailed out to grasp something, anything, for support, lest his knees buckle and he fall down back into the tub. One hand grabbed the top of the frail wooden frame of the paper screen, the other felt whips of his Queen's long luxurious hair as it hung around in a wanton curtain about her head, hiding what action she would commit next.

"Oh, Charter!" Touchstone gasped when he felt Sabriel's lips part and begin to slide down the length of his cock, one lip along the top and the other cradling the bottom. Instinct made his free hand curl around the back of her head, burying fingers into her thick hair to encourage her to stay where she was. Then his hips betrayed him, slightly thrusting into the scalding wetness of his wife's mouth. He felt Sabriel moan, the back of her throat vibrating when the head of his arousal grazed it. The stiffness of his turgid manhood relented to the space of the Abhorsen's mouth, and curved tenderly as she turned her head against his point. Oh, that felt so good.

Then she seemed to slide off of him, as though gravity was dragging her heavy head off of him. No, don't let that happen! And his fingers snarled against her skull, holding her to him, but she moved her mouth back up his shaft. He let his head roll back so he could face her, and watch the impossible things she was doing to him. Her eyes were closed as she bobbed off and on him, but her eyebrows were upraised, expressing the desire that was causing her chest to rise and fall rapidly with her increased heartrate. Cheeks hollowed with the force of her sucking, Sabriel's hands had since moved to grip his thighs, and Touchstone felt the fingertips shudder finely...or was that him shaking with all the unbelievable pleasure he was feeling? Her head continued to slide up and down his length, and then he felt her tongue wrap around him.

"Charter, Sabriel! You're going to make me come!" Touchstone sputtered as he threw his head back once more, and his grip on the thin wooden frame of the screen tightened, causing the wood to crack and splinter.

With those words, Touchstone's Queen suddenly pulled entirely off of him, leaving his wet-slicked free-standing member exposed to the chambers' air, and begin to cool down without the heat of Sabriel's mouth surrounding it. Desperate for release, Touchstone was obviously surprised, and urgent to know why she had stopped. "Sabriel!" the King demanded when he whipped his head back to look down at her.

She was simply smiling sweetly up at him, her hands having released his shaking thighs and were now submerged in the tub. Looking down through the clear lavender water, Touchstone blanched to see that her hands were pressed up tightly against the apex of her body where her legs met, and that the fingers were moving against her.

"Ah!" Sabriel gasped out at her own pleasurable touch, head lolling back so her face looked up at the ceiling. Her eyes shut and her eyebrows raised in urgency, pleading on behalf of the place where her hands were rubbing for release.

Frustrated that his Queen may experience climax without him, Touchstone now bounded out of the tub, turned right back around to face Sabriel, then bent down in one quick motion and slipped one arm beneath her knees and the other around her back, scooping her up in his arms.

"Touchstone!" the Abhorsen exclaimed as his movement forced her fingers out of her crevice. Her hands flew away from her with his swift gesture, but when she saw him looking at her the way he was, she giggled and wrapped her hands around his neck. Then he moved his head down so he could reach her lips, kissing her with all the fiery passion that she had just laden upon his straining cock.

"No more games," Touchstone whispered once Sabriel had released his lips and rested her head against his shoulder, forehead touching his cheek, with a contented sigh. "Sabriel, Abhorsen, my Queen of the Old Kingdom, I am going to make love to you with all the passion I have always felt for you, but with sensation of effect tenfold what we shared on our wedding night, for I've missed you so much." And he turned on his heel, taking confident steps towards the Queen's bed.

Reaching the bed, Sabriel sighed deeply again as Touchstone gently lowered her onto the soft velvet bedding. As she stretched and caressed her abdomen's skin with her fingertips, sighing with torturous pleasure, the King merely sat down on the edge of the bed, completely ignoring the need for release between his legs. He wanted to touch Sabriel, as he had not been able to do so for long days during the past month. He simply wanted to run his fingertips all over her body, and ensure her enjoyment of the sensation of such tender attentions. He reached out to her, softly tucking a strand of her loose long raven hair away from her face and behind the graceful curve of her ear.

"I love you, Touchstone," Sabriel moaned as she forged her head against his hand, turning her face to his palm, and suckling on the lines that criss-crossed over it. Touchstone groaned in response, turning his hand from her to lay flat on the pillow she laid her head on, supporting his body weight as he shifted his form to climb up onto the bed with her. He laid down on his side next to her, whilst she remained on her back and blushed at the look in his eyes. His sight was so serious upon her, dark as desire slipped across his gaze.

"I love you, Sabriel," Touchstone murmured before his lips sought the hollow of her throat, head leaning down and chestnut curls tickling along her jawbone.

"Ooh..." the Abhorsen sighed when his hand, starting at her shoulder, slid down and over her breast, cupping it hesitantly in the palm while the thumb stroked firmly over her pointed dusky peak. Her eyes fluttered shut while her own fingers dug into his curls, arms folded around him and refusing to relinquish him. Her leg drew up, knee raising towards the ceiling, before it raised her foot into the air, and wrapped around her husband's hip at the calf. She was now exposed to him, but he wasn't going to stop touching her just because of that.

His hand moved away from her breast, sliding down her ribcage then up the hill of her hip, before swiftly sweeping down her thigh to grasp her knee, and pull her leg's grip more tightly around his waist. One of Sabriel's hands also moved, down the nape of the King's neck as it escaped the jungle of his curls, and continued sliding down with palm curved convexly flat upon his skin. Down the peak of his shoulderblade, her hand then concaved to follow the curve of his ribs, before her arm stretched out to force her hand with its fingertips poking into the hollow line of his back that followed his spine.

"Ah!" Touchstone gasped into his wife's ear at the touch, his back arching and body pressing up against hers at the movement, Sabriel merely moaning at the feel of his breath past her ear. She turned her head and took his lips possessively with her own, suckling his upper lip while her tongue lapped at the underside of it.

Again a pleasurable noise escaped Touchstone: a deep growl from his throat and up into Sabriel's mouth as he kissed her back, his tongue sweeping out and across her lower lip. Still teasing her, he moved his body again, this time so he was facing his Queen as he lay on top of her, knees pressed down into the mattress as his torso hovered just inches above hers. He was kneeling with his calves folded under his thighs, the knees themselves set one on either side of her hips, her legs drawn up on either side of him as he knees pointed to the bed's canopy and her feet laid flat upon the bedding. When he bent forward, hands supporting his weight as the hands were pressed against the mattress on either side of her ribcage, his rigid flesh twitched in its close proximity to her folds. Smiling, Sabriel looked up at her King, and when he bent down to kiss her lips again, his hard cock curved against her crevice, causing her to moan.

Letting her hands grip his forearms as Touchstone kissed her, Sabriel arched her back, raising her hips as she pushed up off the bed with her feet, pressing her body up against his, and sandwiching his erect cock between their stomachs. He disengaged from the kiss with a gasp as Sabriel sighed, a little bit of pre-cum escaping his tip and landing in her navel. She laid back flat against the bed when she felt it, parting their bodies, then used a finger to scoop his juice out of her bellybutton. She smiled and looked up into his eyes, before sliding that hand down and applying her finger to her own bud.

A loud moan escaped Sabriel at her own touch, even causing the water in the tub feet away to vibrate.

"Charter, Sabriel," Touchstone groaned as he cast his eyes down to watch her touch herself: it was something very erotic to him. He leaned back, making his back straight as he knelt against his haunches, removing one arm from beside the Abhorsen's ribcage and utilizing its hand to aid in Sabriel touching herself. Sabriel gasped when she felt his thick fingertip stroke down across her opening while she circled her own bud with her slender fingertip.

Sabriel shut her eyes as she concentrated on the slick movement of her finger with Touchstone's fluid upon her nub, but then she felt him remove himself from her, the bed shifting as his kneeling legs disappeared from their comfortable positions on either side of her hips. Curious, she cracked open an eye to see what he was doing, and saw that he had lain down on his stomach at the end of the bed, upper torso propped up as he leaned on his elbows with hands that now gripped her hips. His head was hovering right above her private area.

"Ooh, Touchstone," Sabriel moaned at the idea when she saw the look that his eyes were giving her aperture. Then his mouth opened and his tongue swept up against her bud.

"Oooh!!" Sabriel's body immediately reacted, her back arching up and her eyes squeezing shut. One hand of hers was flat on the bedcovers while the other was wrapped around its corresponding breast, and when Touchstone licked her, the fingers of both hands dug and snarled into their respective surfaces, the bedding wrinkling and her skin stretching.

Touchstone's tongue slid wetly along the lines of her folds, which were becoming hot and slick with her own juices seeping out of her orifice. Disbelieving, Sabriel felt her husband lap it all up, his tongue darting in and out of his mouth to poke in and out of her entrance. While she wailed at the sensation as her body felt on fire, Touchstone's hands greedily squeezed her thighs, urging her to try to thrust her hips against his mouth so he could kiss her there more deeply. And while his lips took a hold of her bud, and his cheeks hollowed with the force of his sucking, Sabriel couldn't help herself and bucked. The hand that had been gripping her breast now released it, and slid, palm-flat against her skin, down, fingertips jumping up to weave deep into the King's curls, and hold his head there until he'd had his drink of her.

The Queen's fragrance filled Touchstone's nose as his mouth filled of her taste. Not even the finest banquet the kingdom could prepare for him could compare to the delicious flavour of his one true love upon his tongue. His erection pressed flat between his abdomen and the bed, Touchstone could feel his pulse shift in its rapidity to become more deafening down there rather than in his chest. The blood pounded in his ears as Sabriel's continuous moans flew into them, sending his mind spinning over the unbelievable pleasure his senses were taking in.

He'd finally had enough. Touchstone couldn't bear the separation any longer: he wanted to join his body to his Queen's and feel his soul jolt out of him and through her before returning. He wanted to feel like they were one, as they had when they'd wed, and that the pleasure they could amount was a sealance of their souls, fusing their love to last as long as they lived. One last lick at her and he was up, quickly returning his body to the missionary position it had been in before he had tasted of her.

"Oh, Touchstone, my love," Sabriel sighed as his lips returned to hers, one hand stroking the side of her gentle face, the other strangely absent. No, she now felt where his other hand was, and she bucked when a finger of his dipped inside of her to test her readiness.

"You feel like liquid fire," that finger pulled out of her, and he quickly brought it up and sucked her juices off it with his lips before sending the hand down again. The hand now had another mission: steadying himself as he tried to push inside of her.

Sabriel felt a thick rounded thing slowly begin to pierce her fissure, and she sighed at how its size completely expanded her walls as far as they could. Their wedding night had been one when she felt his shape as pain, but now she was able to appreciate the fact that he fit so well into her, like a hand sliding into a glove for a perfect fit. But unlike a hand that, when it puts on a glove it pulls it on all the way, Sabriel felt at this moment that Touchstone wasn't going into her as far as he could. He had stopped halfway, and just as she was about to encourage him to go deeper, he began pulling out. He groaned when he was entirely out again.

"Charter, Sabriel, you're so tight," Touchstone didn't complain as he paused, but then he surged forward again, tip momentarily stuck at her vertical slit before the pressure of his weight moving forward forced her walls open to him.

Sabriel bit her lip as the intense feeling of her husband forcing himself inside of her again skated over her entire body. Her face flushed at how vulnerable her state was, how much in need she was, and how she now felt like she would do anything for release.

"Your body is just perfect," Touchstone's voice was thick with desire and hoarse with urgency as he gasped when he'd pushed himself right to his hilt inside of her, her exterior tickled by his hair at his base. "You're like an aphrodisiac for me: everything about you makes me wild with love for you."

"Touchstone..." Sabriel sighed, then made a grunt of pleasure when his tip hit the limit of her core. Yes, he was a perfect match to her, mind, body, and soul. Her eyes fell shut as he gradually dragged himself backwards again, nearly escaping her, then pushed forward again a bit faster.

"Sabriel..." Touchstone's voice strained, betraying what state of arousal he was in. It sounded to her that her husband was having trouble going slowly, like he was just about to abandon his temperance and simply piston into her as fast as he could. But she smiled that he was trying to drag the pleasure out as long as possible, just like he had to wait excruciatingly long for her to return to him, and was rewarded generously when she finally did. She opened her eyes to see what contorted expression his face had taken as a shield to keep his climax at a distance, but found his attention rapt upon her expression instead. Her passage had obviously remained tight around him despite the slickness of her personal lubrication, as in his eyes the Abhorsen saw deeply the lust that had taken over his sense of touch.

"Your control is admirable," Sabriel giggled, but then gasped as another hard thrust of his rocked her body. He was now pumping with a regular rhythm, and Sabriel felt like she could sing a song and its beat would match each pump. But whenever she opened her mouth, all she could do was moan at the pleasure that shot through her with each movement of his.

"Mmm, yes, I know," Touchstone husked when his head drooped down, lips against her throat feeling her heartbeat pound through the veins that lay just below the skin. His sweat dripped off of his forehead, and when he licked up her ear he tasted both his sweat and hers: hers was sweet while his was slightly bitter.

Her palms skimming Touchstone's chest, Sabriel moved her hips to rub against his above her, in time with his thrusts, and each time he pushed forward she pushed down onto him, impaling her own passage with pure pleasure. She felt her skin shiver all over, and knew she was getting close to coming. Then a bolt of heat ripped through her: the first wave of her orgasm. It set the tips of every nerve beneath her skin's surface aflame, and she felt like she was incinerating right there in the comfort of velvet bedcovers. With the surge of adrenaline that he was making love to her, she decided she wanted to make love to him, and forced her elbows back into the mattress, pushing down. This forced her body up, making Touchstone have to retreat slightly, and when he did so Sabriel used the momentum to flip their positions. The result was that he had rolled across the bed to lay on his back, while she had maintained their connection and followed him to stop the movement with her sitting atop him, straddling his waist.

Sabriel felt Touchstone's body tighten beneath her, worrisome as to the fact that he wasn't in control any longer. "Sabriel," Touchstone began, but ended with a groan and a bite down on his lip as Sabriel pushed up him on her knees, then sat back down. "...what are you doing?"

"Mmmm, what does it feel like, beloved?" Sabriel moaned, sliding her claw-curved fingers up her thighs, flattened up around her hips and her ribs, then cupped and squeezed her breasts when she pushed up again. "Oh, Touchstone," Sabriel sighed as her head lolled back, "there's still one more part of my birthday gift for you left to give. Do you want it?"

"Yes!" Touchstone's eyes squeezed shut as he smiled his moan, hands moving to grab a hold of his wife's waist and try to push her back down on him again.

"Are you sure?" Sabriel sighed, hands leaving her chest to rest flat on his chest to support her as she pushed up along his length again. She bore her weight down upon him, sliding her hips forward as they ground against his, forcing his cock within her to angle down so it would be pointing towards his navel were he free of her. But then she rolled her hips, and ground herself backwards, forcing him to stand up straight within her again. He groaned at the movement, eyes rolling back in his head.

Eventually, he remembered she'd asked him a question, and found his voice to give her a response. "Give it to me!" Touchstone demanded, fingers pressing into her soft ivory flesh.

Sabriel moaned one last time as she settled back down on his cock. "My beloved Touchstone, King of the Old Kingdom: your Queen, the Abhorsen, is pregnant."

That sure caught his attention. His eyes snapped open wide as the smile on his face dispersed in disbelief. "Sabriel, you mean...?"

"Right this day, right this minute, I am carrying our legacy," Sabriel rolled her head back around to look at her husband.

"...before you left for the Wall? That last night we had together and we...so now you are going to have--?" Touchstone had stopped his hips from thrusting up into the Abhorsen so he could clear up his questions and discover what Sabriel was meaning.

"You're going to be a father, Touchstone," Sabriel smiled at him.

Now Touchstone smiled, and slid a hand from around her hip to rest flat against her abdomen, over her navel. Sabriel sucked in a breath as she watched him try to feel for his child. He seemed to feel the warmth of what was growing inside his wife, and drummed his fingertips gently against Sabriel's skin below her ribs. Sabriel giggled at the touch, and Touchstone chuckled at how happy he had become from the news.

"Sabriel!" Touchstone exclaimed as he launched himself up, sitting up with his back straight, and threw his arms around Sabriel to embrace her. Now his torso pressed up against hers, and he tilted his head up to kiss her. He moved his legs, crossing them to anchor him on the bed in his sitting position, and positioned Sabriel so she was in his lap with her legs wrapped about his waist. Sabriel moaned softly into the kiss at the change of position, and slipped her arms around her husband's neck to hug him back, her hair hanging around both their faces in a curtain as Touchstone suckled her tongue.

"That's my favourite birthday present of all, Sabriel," Touchstone mumbled once he'd released her tongue, and turned his head to rest his ear against her chest, listening to her heartbeat.

The Abhorsen smiled and kissed her husband's forehead, dreamily closing her eyes as she leaned her head against his, sighing happily that he enjoyed the birthday gift she'd discovered she was in possession of while she was working on the Wall, and had missed her monthly visitor. When she'd missed her period, she thought that maybe it was because of the stress of working so hard on the Wall. But upon seeing the stationed doctor when she began being ill, Sabriel happily learned of her pregnancy, and purposely did not tell the King in her letters to him about it as she wanted to surprise him with it when she returned to Belsiaere. And surprise him she did.

"I knew it would be," Sabriel breathed into his hair, before deviously bucking her hips against him as she sat in his lap, curving him lightly within her as they were still connected.

"Ooh, Sabriel..." Touchstone sighed, his hands firmly on her hips lifting her up then pushing her back down onto him again, while at the same time he instinctively tried to thrust up.

"...beloved, do that again..." Sabriel moaned, her hands slipping off his neck as she leaned her body back, finally resting her head and shoulders against the bedcovers ahead of Touchstone.

"...of courth..." Touchstone began, but ended in a mumble when he leaned forward and made to kiss her stomach, expressing his love for the child growing within it. His tongue plunged into her navel as he thrust up into her again.

"Oooooh, please, again..." Sabriel couldn't get enough.

Touchstone lifted away from her, leaning back again. His fingers still gripped around her hipbones, Touchstone lifted her loins up along him, then pulled her back down. Still moaning, Sabriel unwrapped her legs from his waist, extending them out to plant her feet flat on the mattress behind him, so that she could help the movements by pushing up from the bed with her legs. Pushing up on her legs Sabriel forced Touchstone to leave her passage, and then she'd lower herself again so he would thrust in once more.

"...yes...anything..." fully formed phrases expressing how great he was feeling formed in Touchstone's mind, but escaped through his wet lips only in fragments, so caught up in his breathing and his groaning in pleasure that he couldn't remember what he was going to say. He began to pick up the pace, drawing out smoothly then commandingly pushing into the heat again, driving into her faster and harder with each consecutive thrust.

Sabriel's whole body shook with every stroke, back arching with each push in and hands struggling to grasp the sheets for anchorage while her breasts shook with movements paralleled to those of his hard cock. She was in ecstasy, every moan louder than the last. She doubted that the entertainers at Touchstone's surprise birthday party, had they been given a reason to, couldn't have made as much noise with all their voices and instruments combined as she was right now.

Her voice was simply animal, raging to echo moans of pure pleasure off of every edge and corner of everything in the room. Touchstone felt his eyes searing, as he kept them open to watch her every action. His body was nearing something, with all the pressure and sensual stimulation it was creating and receiving, he was starting to again feel like he was going to burst, as he did when Sabriel was sucking him in the bath.

"Ooooh, Sabriel, I'm going to come..." Touchstone trailed off, but kept his hands on her hips and her clamped to him, so that she wouldn't just hop off of him and help herself, as she had done in the copper tub. But he highly doubted that she could do that anyway: she was so weak and wrought with the electricity of their joined bodies, she simply _had_ to get release or she would not be able to relax again. She was so tight surrounding him, Touchstone suspected that she, too, was close to her breaking point.

"...make me love it, love..." she begged, her face contorted and soaked with the sweat of the continuing tension over the torture of the delay of coming. Her back arched once more with a particularly hard thrust of his, grinding her hips more deeply against his, and Touchstone suddenly felt a lick of release when she deliberately clenched the muscles of her entrance.

"Charter! Sabriel!" Touchstone gasped before he was caught entirely in the white hot passion as it ripped down his limbs, bouncing off his skin, and emerging out his cock as he spilled into her. His groan was loud and long, lasting as long as he felt the flames of the erotic fire touching every nerve below the skin and singe every hair follicle across his body. His whole being went stiff: mind frozen in its thought path, body rigid as it strove to feel every lick of activity that was happening within him, soul fusing to his wife's once again.

"Touchstone!" was what Sabriel screamed when his final thrust, pounded into her, combined with his heat pooling inside her, rocked her body for the last time but for the first time with a wave of sheer pleasure sweeping through her. Her fingers curled into fists as she rode out the shock of her climax, her sweat making her feel like she was drowning in a sea of mercury, the laser paths of the shooting ecstasy pulsing out of her through her fingernails and toenails. Her body arched up with the sensation, bowing to the surface of the flow of coming, her throat pleading her mind to survive so that it could feel the fresh air of breathing again.

And both voices finally ran out of breath, ending the screams of pleasure, whilst the bodies they had been issued from maintained their turgid statuesque poses, staying still to feel the pleasure as long as they could before it faded away. Gradually, their breathing became audible, though irregular, as their heartbeats slowly slowed down. And eventually they relaxed their poses, letting their bodies fall softly, though limply, back onto the comfortable bed. Touchstone still had his legs crossed with his wife's seat in his lap, but he laid back to his spine was flat against the mattress, while Sabriel stretched her legs out straight and panted.

Gasping, and licking his lips of the wetness he had ignored to clean up prior, Touchstone discovered his vocabulary again. "Oh, Sabriel, I've missed you so much," and leaned up and forward, back over the Abhorsen's abdomen, kissing around her navel once more.

Sabriel chuckled lightly at the ticklish touch, lazily raising an arm to forge its fingers into the King's sweaty curls. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to wait a while to see your gift."

Touchstone choked out a laugh between kisses, turning his head to rest his ear flat upon her navel. "I don't mind. The waiting is often the best part when you don't know exactly what you're getting."

Sabriel smiled, "Good." She sighed contentedly and finally found strength, drawing her legs towards her again, feet flat to the mattress, and pulled off of Touchstone when she raised her hips into the air. The King's face contorted as though he was wincing, but he was actually expressing his regret that he had to part from his Queen. Free of her, his manhood stood up in the air for a moment longer, visibly slick with liquid lust, before it seemed to drop dead of exhaustion, laying flat to point to his navel. Sabriel giggled, having watched it as soon as it had escaped her.

Touchstone sighed, then reached for his wife, grasping her arm and pulling it towards him, forcing her to crawl in his direction. She moved to lay beside her husband, her body lying on its side against his side, her chest pressed comfortably along his ribs with her arm draped across his chest. She twined her legs amongst his and sighed as she placed her ear against his shoulder, closing her eyes to fall asleep for the night. Touchstone turned his head and buried his nose in her mass of black hair, his arm corresponding to the side Sabriel was on wrapped about her shoulders, the other hand lightly gripping her forearm on his torso. They both sighed happily, and Touchstone kept his eyes open with a smile on his face, thinking about how he was going to be a father.

And just as the night's silence floated into the chamber through the window and began to settle upon the room's furniture and its occupants, there came a loud rapping upon the door. Immediately husband and wife, King and Queen, sat upright on the bed. The door began to open.

"...hello? Your Majesty, are you in here?" the steward's head poked around the door. Sabriel and Touchstone wrapped arms around each other, to hide their nakedness. They didn't have time to think and remember that they were sitting on a bed, as they could have hidden for cover under its velvet blankets. Then there was no time to do any thinking at all, as the steward had stepped into the room.

At first it seemed like the steward didn't see anything as his eyes scanned the dark room, but Sabriel's ivory skin against the shadows was unmistakable. And the steward gasped. "King Touchstone?"

Touchstone sighed, knowing that they'd been caught. "Yes, I am here."

"Oh, thank goodness, the castle staff and I have been looking all over the castle for you all evening! ...you look awfully pale, Your Highness. Are you ill? Is that why you did not come down to the Great Hall?" the steward took steps towards the bed.

The royal couple tensed up, fearing that the steward would see their nudity. Touchstone began to assure the invader, "No, steward, I am not ill..."

"...you're looking at the wrong person." Sabriel boldly completed her husband's phrase.

The steward jumped in surprise, taking a step back. "The Queen! Abhorsen, what are you doing here!?"

"Giving my King his birthday present, if you don't mind." Sabriel confidently said.

"...birthday present...? Ooh...oh! Birthday present!" the steward finally put two and two together, raising a hand to cover his eyes as he quickly knelt to the floor. "Forgive me, Mistress! I did not know...!"

"That is all right, steward," Sabriel stifled a giggle.

Touchstone was amazed at how confident Sabriel was, how she did not care that the steward knew what she was doing with the King in bed. But then he figured, the steward probably knew what married couples do, anyway. It was just that she was Queen, and one should not know such personal things about her...'activities' and behavior therein. Beginning to be turned on by the Abhorsen's confidence, Touchstone swept in and kissed her.

"Touchstone!" Sabriel laughed beneath his lips, surprised by his sudden action. She finally pushed him away, embarrassed for the steward, who was still kneeling on the floor and hearing everything.

"What would you have me do, Your Majesties?" the steward's voice quivered.

"Bring my Queen some clothes," Touchstone confidently piped up, "and ensure that the Great Hall is ready for my arrival in fifteen minutes."

"As you wish, King Touchstone!" the steward jumped up and saluted his employers, happy that he'd finally be able to 'surprise' his King. But then he noticed Sabriel's white flesh in the dark again, and quickly covered his eyes. "U-um, I'll return swiftly with some suitable clothing for you, Queen Sabriel!" the steward stumbled as he back out of the room, and slammed the door shut behind him.

As the sound of the door closing echoed in the chamber, both Touchstone and Sabriel burst out laughing, holding each other as their sides split.

"I guess he liked the look of the first part of my birthday present to you, beloved," the Abhorsen ventured when she'd finally stopped giggling.

Touchstone finished chuckling, and turned to face his Queen, a serious look on his face. "Well, now we'll be able to see if the rest of the kingdom likes the second part of my birthday present that I'll get to see later," he released Sabriel and slipped off the side of the bed, strolling to the other side of the paper screen by the tub and gathering his clothes, starting to pull them back on.

"But once you do see your gift," Sabriel stretched and walked after her King, picking up the servant girl's dress and pulling it over her head as she passed it (no matter how much confidence she had, she didn't want the steward to see her naked again), "would you like it if I would give you another one just like it?" she smiled.

Touchstone turned and bent his head, kissing Sabriel softly, before parting and confessing, "I'd love it."

Sabriel giggled. "I love you," and kissed him back.

"I love you, too," Touchstone repeated, one final kiss, more deep than the last, sealing their arrangement on a second gift.

The steward eventually returned, Sabriel dressed in her royal though comfortable clothes, and the King and Queen walked hand in hand down to the Great Hall, and opened the doors to a long-awaited (on the part of the castle staff) and very happy surprise indeed.


End file.
